What a View

While I was busy staring at this:

I almost missed this:

Fortunately, as I was preparing to leave the office I looked out my office window and caught it just in time. Just 5 minutes later when I did leave, there's only a slight hint of color left.

Allergic Reaction

Okay, so for a while now, I have this occasional allergic reaction. Not sure what the deal is or what causes it. In a matter of about 5 minutes a civil war goes on inside my gut and then all my food finds its way through my intestines. And on top of that, my throat swells to make breathing a little more work, my ears itch and my nose gets stuffy for a while. This goes on for about 45 minutes and then my sinuses drain and my throat goes back to normal. I've tried to pay attention to the food I consume right before hand but nothing makes sense. This happened yesterday as we were walking out of the house for Thanksgiving. Our two hour drive took 3 hours and included several potty stops in between. The only things I had to eat were a slimfast and granola bar which is what I eat every morning. I didn't change my skin care products at all either so who knows.

This morning I'm feeling refreshed and ready for a busy weekend. Tomorrow morning we're serving the college basketball team brunch, then going to their game. Later that evening is LivingStone which is usually followed by an activity with our junior high kids. I told Ryan that I was too tired for the youth activity this time. I imagine some of the junior high and high school girls will come home with me Sunday for a few hours between church and our financial peace class. I think I'll be ready for Monday to come along - being swamped at work sounds like less work than our weekend plans.

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for:
1. My husbands driving skills on slushy, windy roads
2. Each breath
3. Diaper rash cream
4. Walmart being open when I needed a potty break
5. Family
6. Mom's open door policy
7. Sleeping kids

There is truly so much to be thankful for. I'm thankful for the Pilgrims who were willing to cross the Atlantic to the new world. When all odds were against them, God sustained them and provided exactly what they needed. I'm thankful that the Indians were able to see how God worked to provide for them when they called on his name.

p.s. I'm thankful for those stores who were closed on Thanksgiving and allowed their employees to spend time with their families. At the same time, I was really hungry on the way home from Iowa City and nothing was open except a buffet in Big City with an airport. Who needs a buffet after a Thanksgiving meal. I was so excited when I got to Gotham City (home of Fantastagirl) and the BurgerKing sign read "OPEN THANKSGIVING". And then the dissapointment came as we drove through the intersection and saw the bottom of the sign which read (8-noon). Dangit.

Snow

We're getting our first snow and its beautiful big flakes!

chile rellenos

I love mexican food. Maybe that's because I'm half Mexican. Anyway, last night Ryan and I were in the check out line (aka "swipe" out line) at the grocery store. In front of me was a younger woman with lots of groceries. Only I couldn't help but notice that she had what I'd consider mexican foods: chorizo, tortillas, chiles, limes, etc. And I specifically noticed what are commonly called anaheim chiles which my family uses for chile rellenos. I was dying to ask her about them. And finally, the quiet person that I'm NOT, I walked up to her and asked if she would be making chile rellenos. She smiled real big and said yes. I told my husband I'd be going home with her so I could eat some real food as I've been homesick anyway. Ryan said I was stalking her. In any case that woman is about to fix some good food in the near future and I'd love to be eating at her table!

makeover

I was thinking yesterday that I could use a total make over but then again, maybe not. Maybe I just need to take the time to blow dry my hair and put on make up. For now, I'd rather spend that time playing with my kiddos, snuggling with Ryan or staying in bed till he gets the fire started and I have a warm house!

On another make-over note, my blog needs a facelift. I want more space on it for the text and less for the sidebars. I need to redo the whole thing but honestly don't have the time to mess with it!

Sassy Senorita

It was a typical shopping trip to the city with the usual stop at the kids clothing store that I prefer. We found the cutest shirt ever. Since this shopping trip occurred last March-ish, we didn't know yet that we'd be having a girl. The shirt was so cute, I just could pass it up. Tuesday, Bethany wore the shirt and it was adorable on her:

Make note that her shirt reads "Sassy Senorita". The reason I find this so cute is that my children are 1/4 mexican and therefore the "senorita" is fitting. I wonder what she would be referred to in the Dutch language. Anyway, my little girl is absolutely precious and we love her dearly... even when she screams for the 5 minutes it takes for me to pump before I can feed her! Last night she wore black tights, a jean skirt and a black shirt that said "milk addict". It was cute but I didn't get a picture. She is adorable. For those of you who've not met her or been around her for a while, I think you're going to fall in love with our smiling, grinning little girl who's just starting to say "dada".

Thanksgiving Kids Craft

Okay, I'm looking for a simple kid craft for Scott (28 months old) to do for Thanksgiving. I've seen a few things online but now I'm hoping you can share a great idea or link with me. I want him to have a little something to do and at the same time remember that Thanksgiving is more than turkey, its about the Europeans who sailed over on a boat for religious freedoms.

Please, please share any ideas you might have.

the non-creative mommy
T

IOWA

I grew up in California, didn't know any better and loved it. I grew up in a great community with a wonderful family and survived through my college years. California has so much to offer - the coast, the mountains, the redwoods, fresh clam chowder, not-too-cold weather, year round sports, year round farming, etc. What an amazingly diverse state.

While in college, I got a taste of Iowa. It is not flat. The potatoes grown here are in gardens. Rural life is a blessing. We do have "cities". There is more to life here than football. Its wonderful. Although I miss the amenities of my home state, I love Iowa. Its a well kept secret and I kinda like to keep it that way (unless you're a buddy or family member then I'd like for you to come out here).

Anyway, there's a new magazine out. It's fun! Upbeat! And different from any magazine you've ever seen! Our Iowa, the magazine that celebrates all that's great about living in Iowa. You can order a subscription for a very reasonable price or head on over to IowaGeek to sign up to win a free subscription for her monthly bribing contest.

What a Weekend

I was so looking forward to my three day weekend but things quickly changed. It was a typical Saturday morning with Ryan at gone. Ryan headed to town to fix the Ford. This was after he thought that I could take him to get the Ford which was out in the timber. I quickly reminded him that with two kids, we’d have to take the car and the car might not make it through the corn field. Jerry and kids came over and gave Ryan a ride to the Ford. Ally stayed at the house and played with Scott. Scott got his usual breakfast – a nutri grain bar, which he didn’t even finish. I just figured it was because Ally was there to play. After about half an hour, Ally went home. I changed his diaper and put big boy underwear on him. Every ten minutes after that we stopped for a potty break. I even tried the cheerio trick but he wanted to fish the cheerios out and eat them instead of pee on them. The next thing I remember is lunch time. I was desperately trying to get my house clean (which is hard to do when you go potty every ten minutes) on Saturday so I could enjoy the remainder of my long weekend. Trying to make the best of my time, I put Scott in his high chair in the living room to allow him to eat lunch and watch a movie while I folded clothes. He is the SLOWEST eater and don’t pay much attention as I’m in no hurry and his slow eating is buying time and entertaining him. However, after some time, I see that he’s finished a full cup of juice and not touched his burrito. The kid is engaged in Veggie Tales and nothing else, almost like a trance. So, I remind him several times that he needs to eat and he continues the trance until I pause the movie. This gets his attention and he begins to whine. After about half the burrito is eaten, he stops eating and continues whining – which goes over real well when I’m not appreciative of a whiny child. So, I treat him like a baby and begin feeding him. And after about the second tiny bite he took, he puked! Yes, my child puked. Kinda gross but I’ve seen a lot worse. It was mostly [hope you like details] watery and it was contained on the tray of his high chair. Fortunately his burrito was in my hand and it was saved. I figured he’d just overdone the running around like a crazy boy earlier in the morning and it was no big deal. He does this occasionally and was acting normal. He took two more tiny bites and then wouldn’t finish it. I’m such a good mom – who in the world forces their kid to eat right after they puke?

Fast forward a few hours. Scott has peed through his underwear and I’m a bit frustrated but he’s two. There was just a little bit of urine so I decide that he can just wait a few minutes and feel the wetness. I’m finally having lunch. All of a sudden I notice that Scott has peed AGAIN. Yes, we’d just discussed this issue and the importance of telling me when he has to pee. This time it has soaked through the underwear and sweats and he’s trying to clean it up with a broom. Okay, I saw him cleaning with the broom a few minutes before as I scarfed my food but he likes to clean so I thought nothing of it. But when he came in the kitchen and announced that he was cleaning his mess, I had to investigate. There was a puddle in the lving room on the wood floor that he’s kindly swept up and spread everywhere. Now that I’m finishing up dishes, Scott is forced to stay in the kitchen with me where he can’t cause a bigger mess. Ryan comes home. [Thanks to Chris and $60 later the Ford is fixed. Bethany is such an easy going kid and I’m so thankful for that, especially on a day like this one.] Ryan wants to go back to the timber to load wood. I actually enjoy that on occasion and volunteer to go help. We head upstairs for a quick bath for Scott and to get the kids dressed for the unseasonably warm weather. As I pull off his wet underwear, I notice something. Did I mention that I smelled something earlier but didn’t feel anything when I patted him down? There’s some brown in the chones. Yipee, not only has my child puked, peed through his clothes, smeared it all over the floor, now he’s also pooped in his underwear. As I pull his clothes off, I see that the mess is larger than I realize. Slightly disgusted, I let the bath water out of the tub as this one will require a shower, not just a bath. He’d not only pooped in his underwear but the poop had managed to slide down his leg, smear all over and hang out at the cuff of his sweats. Thank the good Lord for an elastic gathered cuff!!! I shower off the colorful stuff and then give him a quick bath. After dressing Scott, I begin hand washing poopy clothes. Okay, its one thing to wash poopy clothes for Bethany that are typically very liquidy, but for Scott, it was gross! Sparing some of the details, I’ll just say that I got the clothes clean and headed to my own room.

I’m in the room changing quick while Ryan and Scott play airplane on the computer. As I walk into the room with the boys, Scott, bored, starts to slide off Ryan’s lap. And then begins round 2 of the puking. This time all over the wood floor. The poor kid has no clue what’s going on or how to stop it. He managed to cover about 30 square feet of floor, himself and a bit of my shoes. To the bath we go AGAIN and Ryan begins to clean. So much for loading wood! Now I know he’s sick and am not going to ask him to eat anything. I ask Ryan to stay home as I’m not feeling the greatest anymore either – probably a result of washing pooped in clothes and cleaning up puke several times. Ryan heads to the store for Sprite as we cover the bed for puke protection, turn a movie on and lounge. The remainder of the afternoon includes intermittent drinks of sprite and eventually a few crackers which he puked up. Starting over with the liquid and eventually we move to a little apple sauce since the child was begging for food. Again, he gave us reason to launder our bedding. All in all, I think he puked five times usually within 40 minutes of eating a solid food. We put Scott to bed in his new Cars pajamas which he was excited about and finally made it to bed ourselves, with clean sheets and less than normal blankets. About 20 minutes later, we hear a rustling over the monitor as Scott crawled out of bed. He’s the cutest thing in the world when he walks in the room with his blanket in tow saying “mommy, I’m awake. Snuggle in your bed?” And again, it was cute, even though he’s done in multiple times now. Only this time, I notice the top of his new pajamas look like there’s something around the shoulders – either lint or puke. And yes, it was a little bit of the remainder of apple sauce that was still in his stomach. It apparently didn’t bother him at all, nor was it a big deal because we didn’t hear it over the monitor. However, at this point, I decided that Scott would camp out on our floor for the night. Ryan layered blankets on the floor and we covered him up and finished watching our movie.

One story, I must include occurred during the middle of the night. He would occasionally make random comments in his sleep which I quickly picked up on and began ignoring. Only this one time, he called out to me and I heard a thud. Again, he said “mommy” followed by a thud. And hardly awake, I about laughed. I sat right up and answered him back. This continued two more times before I was in the floor pulling him out from under our bed. The kid is a wiggle worm and had managed to get his upper body under our bed while asleep. He must have woke up, not known where he was, tried to move and found himself hitting his head on the under side of our bed. It was hilarious. I moved him back onto the pile of blankets, covered him up and he fell right to sleep as I crawled back into my own bed.

I know this is getting lengthy and detailed but part of me wants to record the details so that I can embarrass my son with the memories later on in life.

Sunday morning I made a pad on the couch for Scott to lay on and watch TV. I’m not a fan of the TV babysitter idea but the child was feeling miserable and it was a good way to entertain him and keep his mind busy on something besides food. Ryan was thoughtful and offered to stay home with Scott so I could get out of the house for a bit and go to church. I rushed to shower and carry Bethany out the door with me. It was a much needed break. That afternoon, we slowly introduced a liquid diet. He slept a lot and never really moved off the couch. I don’t think he took twenty steps all day. In the late afternoon, we had one puking episode. That night, like the good mom I am, we took him to town (it was a slow drive over the hilly and windy gravel) and dropped him off at my mom’s so we could attend our financial peace class. Needless to say, he didn’t not want to go nor did he want to be without his mommy. At mom’s he managed to keep down about six crackers. After the class, we picked him up and took him home to put him in bed. I was so glad to know that he was finally over it and holding down food. My three day weekend would end up with a nice day after all, even if that meant finally get the house clean.

Monday morning bright and early Ryan headed to work. I fed Bethany in bed and we snuggled under the warm blankets until Scott woke up. He came in the room and crawled in bed with us girls. Before too long, he started to cough and gag a little. I assured him that he was fine and that it was just a cough now that he knows what puking is. He told me he was fine and pushed me away. But sure enough, it started to come up. It was really gassy sounding and I thought maybe it was nothing but I was wrong. I couldn’t get around to the other side of the bed fast enough. It was nasty, green and all liquid. It went everywhere. His shirt was soaked as was Ryan’s pillow, blanket and sheets. Fortunately he’d not got much on himself that couldn’t be cleaned with a wet wipe. After cleaning him up and changing him, we headed downstairs to the bed on the couch. Only, on the way down the stairs, he puked again. This time, as I was carrying him and so it ran down my shoulder before puddling on the stairs. We improved from the slimy green to just slimy. And I share those details to say that I thought maybe it was just an upset tummy from drainage and that we were done with it. My nice quiet day turned to more laundry, more small short drinks of sprite, more begging for food from Scott and still more puking. One incident soaked him all over, soaked the blanket on the couch, soaked my leather couch and went everywhere. That one required a bath which was not appreciated by the little man. Anyway, the day progressed, he stayed on the couch for the most part. I was able to take care of Bethany, keep watch over the sick kid and get my house cleaned. Halelujah! Throughout the day he chugged juice while I was preoccupied (that little stinker), ate numerous crackers, begged to eat a box cake and came back alive. He even helped me fix a cake but was quite the brat when I wouldn’t let him lick the spoon. He scarfed down soup for supper although I was nervous that he would begin puking in front of our dinner guest. And then, as promised, I let him have a small piece of very rich cake. For the remainder of the night he was his normal stubborn self and begged for food. I’m so glad the weekend is over.

This morning I woke up, glad that both kids slept through the night, no puking, nothing eventful. And I was thrilled to have a morning to sleep in and go to work. Several minutes later Ryan woke me up saying “babe it’s 637” and the realization came to me that my long weekend was over and I did indeed have to go to work!

Fun Fall Day

Doctor's Office

Bethany's newest stats are:
25 inches long
16 lb 9 oz.

The nurse that assisted with shots today was my nurse from last Friday. She had just called me with the results. They came back CLEAR. Amen!

Life at a Glance

I feel like I'm running in fast forward - constantly. Here's life in fast-forward:
1. I'm swamped at work which wears me out!
2. Ryan says milk production also takes a lot of energy which might explain why I'm so tired.
3. Saturday was our first night at home alone as a family in 5 weeks. It was lovely!
3.5 I didn't know what to do and was tempted once to invite friends over. Seriously.
4. Had a b@@b biopsy on Friday. Couldn't feel a thing. Pain later. Nasty bruising.
4.5 [For my ADXers and Cori] I think I'd now be chair of the NBTC now rather than the IBTC.
5. Bethany had her first food on Saturday. She kept spitting it out. Totally not like her brother who was a little bird when we fed him.
6. Played in the leaves on Saturday. Lots of fun. Super cute pictures. Only bad thing - no Bethany, she was napping in the house.
7. Keller (the deaf and partially blind mini aussie) is gone. Came home last night and Ryan asked me if I noticed anything different. After a quick look around I embarrassingly (is that a word) said no. Ryan told me the people we planned to give Keller too finally took him.
7.5 I didn't get to say good-bye to the pup, not that he would have heard me anyway :)
8. Bethany is 17 pounds now. She gets shots in the morning.
9. I have a follow up appt for the biopsy on Friday. Hopefully they have the results back by then.
10. I'm swamped at work and am missing two half days this week. Does that make sense?
10.5 Monday is a federal holiday. Woo hoo! I might work though to get through some of the stuff on my desk.

Oops, Must leave now. Thought I had 15 more minutes, but that 15 minutes includes a 30 minute drive and picking up my kids :)